Tuesday, July 26, 2011

So.. although everyone else has been out of school for a while now... I have still just been treckin along and doing my homework.. and taking my tests.. & now finally..

It's Summer for me! :)

As great as school is and everything, I'm really ready to not be so busy and to enjoy the summer time and to get to enjoy New Mexico & my family and friends for a little while..

So I'm home now in the Land of Enchantment! But.. for less than 24 hours, my family is going California tomorrow until the end of next week.

Can you say, hello more driving... ha but at least it's not school work so I guess I can put up with a little more car time.

So anyway.. I've been pretty busy with studying and finals so nothing too crazy has been going on..

EXCEPT.

The final Harry Potter!

I don't even care what anyone says.. I love Harry Pottter.

Danielle Blake and I all went to the mid-night premier.. and let me tell you I have never seen a movie so packed!

There was a line basically all the way around the movie theater, it was insane! & I'm not exactly sure how but we just.. kind of walked in. haha I saw people drawing Dark Marks and was like..

Oh my gosh. I want one.

So.. we walked in to get our awesome free tattoos and they never kicked us out, SO goodbye.. line. haha

[& speaking of which.. check out our sweet dark marks. I wore it to school the next day ((since we were out so late I didn't get to sleep & I woke up like maybe 30 minutes before I had to be there)) & I only got made fun of a little bit..

So I'm pretty sure everyone was jealous of my hand drawn tattoo.. ]

I also have never seen so many costumes at a premier! It was so fun, it felt like Halloween!

I saw some really amazing ones that I wanted to take pictures of, so at first we tried the "take a picture of the people inconspicuously" approach.

That approach didn't work so well.. so then..

We tried the "Pretend we are at Disney Land and take pictures with the characters" approach. haha

We got better pictures that way but it was so hectic in the movie theater that it wasn't quite the same as at Disney Land..

[which.. I just want to throw out that I am going to TOMORROW]

People definitely rose to the occasion though.. and I was way impressed.

& the movie was amazing!

If you haven't seen it you should definitely put that on your to do list.

:)

To end our late night some of our friends had a little accident with a semi truck.. but everyone was okay thank goodness!

It just turned out to be a much later night than we had anticipated..

Then basically a lot more school happened. Our business ended up finishing and making a profit.. so that was definitely a good thing :)

I got a 109 on one of my finals! Best Test Score of my college career so far so that was awesome!

& in the last couple weeks of school.. it was also (one of my best friends) Aubrey & Brandon's (another good business friend of ours) birthday!

So we got to celebrate with lots of surprise balloons, candy, cake, ice cream, dinner, presents, games and brandon even got to give a presentation in one of our classes! Lucky Him! :) haha

But it was way fun.

Happy Birthday Aubrey & Brandon!

you both are soo.. amazing.

Then (although let me clarify that this blog is not in chronological order.. I'm just kind of summarizing)

We had a big bonfire at this place called the CRACK!

[There are the weirdest named places in Rexburg]

But I think it's named the crack because there is a big crevice and then rocks on either side that you can sit on, so it was a way cool place to have a bonfire..

[& a good situation for everyone to get rid of their left over fireworks!.. AH.]

& Nicole brought a little surprise for everyone...

All of her left over poppers! :)

She was going to throw them in the fire and at people as a surprise.. but little did we know that everyone else brought some AND their fireworks!

It was an all out popper war! haha jk

After I got over the idea that I was going to catch on fire.. it was way awesome to see all of the fireworks going off. I love them.

&.. speaking of catching on fire..

Jordan was.. trying to clear out the weeds.. maybe? haha I think he was just being a little pyro & decided to catch our only way down off the cliff on fire!

Twice.. might I add! :)

He never ceases to make me laugh..

[& I feel that if he hadn't of put the fire out after he had lit it I might have had something different to say about that! But everything ended well.. ]

Then Blake and Shelby took me on a couple outings to help us all keep our sanity..

:)

Rexburg opened up this sweet new outside water park!

[which is weird.. because Rexburg is only warm maybe.. 7% of the year.. so not even having to use my Business major skills.. I deduct that could be an issue]

But it was a really fun break so I'm not complaining. :)

& Shelby's Work has a party has a BBQ/party every summer that she invited me too and it was a perfect way to spend my Saturday. :)

We went last year too.. [& since I didn't really get very many pictures this year, most of these are from then]

& I always have such a good time with Shelby and her family.

I love them so much. :)

There were so many awesome games..

[This one you have to be realllyy strong to play..]

[So good thing I am.. haha]

& there was so much free food, cotton candy, snowcones!

who could ask for anything more..

& this was my year anniversary of when Shelby took me to Reed's Dairy for the first time!

This is the COOLEST ice cream parlor. It's like on a farm and they make their own ice cream from the cows behind the parlor..

pretty impressive.

[Although as a little side note the first time we went here we took our ice cream to go and shelby was on the phone so I was holding both our cones and they started melting! So I put them outside of the car, and oddly to my surprise they started melting faster! & at this point I'm screaming and its flying into my hair and on my face and up my arms!

ha SO when shelby gets off the phone we had to run through this random houses sprinklers and clean off. good memories.]

But thanks for an awesome day Shelb. Love you!

& then once finals were over I got to go stay with the sweet Bingham family for the rest of the weekend until I had to go home.

Which was sooo fun because not only did I feel very relieved but we got to have a relaxing weekend of celebration.

Blake took me to this sweet Bodies exhibit that I had been wanting to go to.. [he'd already been so he was just being a sweet boyfriend and bringing me again.]

But it was really interesting. Did it make me want to puke a couple times?

Uh.. definitely.

All of the bodies in there were REAL!

It was cool to see what the inside of everything looked like though.

It was unreal to me that our bodies were so perfectly put together.

I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the healthy body that he has blessed me with.

It's experiences like that that really make me know that he's there & appreciate Him and all that he has done for me.

Once you see things so intricately put together like that it makes me wonder how anyone can doubt that he exists.

Thanks for the experience babe.

THEN blake took me to the lake!

[So that maybe I could be not completely pasty white when I went home.. ha I don't know if it really accomplished that but at least it was fun]

We built an awesome sand castle.. [which Blake announced to me that he'd seen better, but I still thought it was cute.]

& Blake worked really hard to dig a sweet moat for! While I did the rock decorating..

:)

& I don't know if you can really see the back of the lake behind us, but if you can..

It doesn't look like too far right?

So for some reason I had asked Blake if he could skip rocks, and he said yeah and suggested that we SWIM across and skip rocks over there.

So while I'm sitting there.. unsure of whether I want to do that..

I get picked up and dragged into the middle of the lake! [kicking and screaming and making a scene the whole way mind you..]

& so I was forced to swim the rest of the way!

Even though I was really glad that we ended up doing it.. I just have to say water always looks like such a shorter distance than it really is!

Either that.. or I need to add swimming to my morning exercises and get better at it! haha

We were worn out the rest of the day!

& for my last night there.. Blake took me to the green belt [by the river] and we went on a walk by the temple..

Where we found some sculptures that we thought it'd be a good idea to climb.. ha

It was a really nice way to end my little bit of the summer I got to spend in Idaho.

[& he doesn't know I took this picture.. but..]

I really love this guy.

He treats me SO well & really is the best friend I've ever had.

I'm so lucky to have him.

Also.

Long Distance. Is. Awful.

But anyway... that was a WAY longer summary than I thought it'd be!

I'm sorry I probably bored everyone to death..

I'm making a really cool dessert tonight so if it works I'll make sure to post it next time so anyone who wants to can try it :)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Or technically happy 7th of July at this point! :) But I hope everyone had an amazing independance day weekend!

I know that I sure did...

Not only.. did I get a long weekend away from school.. but my sweet family drove all the way up to Salt Lake to meet me there for the weekend!

I've been waiting for this weekend ever since I heard they were coming up, & it was soo nice to get to see them again!

[It almost felt like it was summer finally for me.. haha wouldn't that have been weird]

I left Friday after I finished all of my stuff for school and got to Utah just in time for dinner!

Something I love about going out to eat with my family... we eat at delicious places.. & my Daddy pays for me :)

I think this was a new appreciation that I aquired since being in college and having a budget.

But a few of the places we ate that I absolutely love and would definitely reccomend were; Noodles & Company, Sweet Tomatoes (my favorite), and Sizzler..

[delicious]

If you haven't eaten at any of those I would definitely suggest that you try them!

& then Saturday.. my relaxing weekend of vacation began!

Over the weekend.. we toured the Mayan. [& Mitchell practiced his amazing modeling skills... he makes such a cute tiki man]

That is the coolest building and the most awesome atmosphere.. but we've found the food to not be so fantastic. So I would suggest definitely go there! But.. just get appetizers.

:)

& we walked around downtown Salt Lake and toured Temple Square... which was BEAUTIFUL. As always. I'm always amazed at how well they take care of the ground and think there is no place as picture perfect.

We also found THE Deseret Book..

ha and saw the coolest Joseph Smith in the grove replica.. it was almost as tall as me.

I would definitely say that whoever made it has some serious talent.

We spent lots of time in our hotel..

Swimming lots.. and keeping ourselves entertained in other ways :)

My parents reallylove it when Mitchy rides around on the luggage trolly like a car.. haha

&& We had an exciting Zoo adventure...

& luckily the Hogle Zoo has picked up a couple dinosaurs for a while.. so we were just in time to see real live prehistorical animals! haha or I guess... maybe not live.. but close enough or why else would they have put them in the zoo..

Some of the dinosaurs even spit out water! & Marah took one for the team and got to experience the spewing water!

Ha either that.. or she was sacrificed and held in the water against her will by my brother..

its all kind of fuzzy really..

:)

& oh don't you worry.. we saw some real live animals too! And they were pretty.. darn.. awesome.

& Since these animals were SO awesome.. we decided to play a little game..

Can you guess who we are?!

[if you can see the animals on the side of the picture it may possibly kinnnd of give it away a little bit]

:)

Haha that's right OF COURSE... we are giraffes!

These giraffes were soo cool they seemed they like they were posing for the camera.. so we wanted to be just like them.

If you see Mitchell make sure to ask him how giraffes fight.. he's pretty professional at it. :)

Now.. for our next contestant in our game..

Who is my cute little sister posing to be?!..

RIGHT again.. what else would she be being than a kangoroo! What good animal imitating skills my family has.. haha

They were soo fun to go to the zoo with..

Now here is the real test..

What in the world is this animal!

We just called it the

flamingo-duck

because that seemed most appropriate but.. if you ACTUALLY knew what it was [not that I think a better name could of probably been ever thought up of course..]

I would be extremely impressed..

Then after our exciting morning adventure at the zoo, we got to take the ultimate ICEE break!

It was the coolest stand.. I've never seen so many flavors at an icee machine, and after walking around in 100 degree weather all day..

I can't imagine anything more perfect!

Wondering where I get my so cute personality? haha

Well wonder no more... :) [Apparently I got a picture right in the middle of a brain freeze.. either that or he was just secretly reallllly enjoying our delicious icee.. either way.. that picture definitely needed to be put in the blog!]

Then after our fantastic break... and a couple refills.. [and my dear Father discovering that the straw made music if you blew out of it and everyone having to try.. ]

We got to do one of my favorite things ever!

Go shopping in the zoo gift store!!

Now that may be a weird favorite thing ever.. but first.. check out my awesome bowl [that is currently being used to hold all of my fruit] that I found there.. I am SO in love with it! & marah's cute zebra scarf too of course..

I alwayyys find the coolest stuff at zoo gift shops I love their jewelry and keychains.. & just everything! I think it's so unique and amazing.

I also love how everyone laughs when they ask where I got my awesome stuff and I tell them the zoo!

:)

I must say that our morning out at the zoo was much better than school.. & a really fun break.

Then for the rest of the vacation we did a lot of shopping.. and relaxing..

For the last couple Fourth of July's we found this really cool fair down I think in the provo-ish area and it has such cool stuff!

Last year I went there and got my awesome bag that I was so obsessed with [anyone who's been around me in the past year has probably seen it.. whether you realize it or not! haha]

So this year what I really wanted to do.. was find another one!

& this...

Would be my amazing bag of the year.

I just loovvve it! & they sell these for so cheap!

If you're in Utah for the Fourth of July.. definitely make sure you check out the fairs or I think you're missin out.

SO for the grand finale of the weekend...

We usually watch the fireworks from the stadium of fire but this year they ended up having it the Saturday before the Fourth of July.. Sooo what do we do on the FOURTH?

You have to celebrate Independance Day... ON Independance Day!

We totallly lucked out..

& the Sandy fireworks were being shot off in the parking lot RIGHT directly next to our hotel!

[We were so close that the firefighters trying to dampen the trees around the fireworks were spraying on our cars the whole time!]

So we got to lay down on the lawn and watch the fireworks directly above us..

It was so breathtaking being able to feel them as they explode and watch them fall down on top of you..

& I for one.. can say that

I am Proud to Be An American

I don't think there is any place better in the world!

When I stayed with a French Family in Paris.. the amazing kids that I got to spend time with told me that my life was their dream life.

I know that I am SO blessed.. and so is everyone else who lives here..

We are so blessed for the people who go out and fight for our freedom. We are blessed that we get to choose what to do with our lives, and live in peace with our families.

I think that people all too often take that for granted.. and it's important to remember that not very many other people have that..

So Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Now on a not so serious note.. and back to my eternal life of school..

:)

How cool is this...

I was completely suprised when everyone was calling and telling me that they had seen my picture ON our school web page!

Our marketing team for our school company used my picture as our advertisement..

Well hello..

& Welcome! I’m Hailey, a new mom in a new city- married to my very best friend and mom to my very favorite sweetest baby girl in all the land- and this is my way of remembering and sharing my sweet family’s life adventures.